ATTENTION: I do not own any of this. I can take very little credit for this, all I did was replaces names and genders and added a little bit of sass. The writing is from one of my favorite books and I'm just replacing the characters from the book with Attack on Titan characters. The book I am using is called 'Vampire Academy' by Richelle Mead.
Book 1: Vampire Academy
Chapter 7: Training
A couple weeks passed after that, and I soon forgot about the Isabel thing as life at the Academy wrapped around me. The shock of our return had worn off a little, and we began to fall into a semi-comfortable routine. My days revolved around church, lunch with Armin, and whatever sort of social life I could scrape together outside of that. Denied any real free time, I didn't have too hard a time staying out of the spotlight, although I did manage to steal a little attention here and there, despite my noble speech to Armin about 'coasting through the middle.' I couldn't help it. I liked flirting, I liked groups, and I liked making smartass comments in class.
Armin's new, incognito role attracted attention simply because it was so different than before we'd left, back when he'd been so active with the royals. Most people soon let that go, accepting that the Arlet prince was fading off the social radar and content to run with Legout and her group. Legout's rambling still made me want to beat my head against a wall sometimes, but she was really nice—nicer than almost any of the other royals—and I enjoyed hanging around her most of the time.
And, just as Annie had warned, I was indeed training and working out all the time. But as more time passed, my body stopped hating me. My muscles grew tougher, and my stamina increased. I still got my ass kicked in practice but not quite as badly as I used to, which was something. The biggest toll now seemed to be on my skin. Being outside in the cold so much was chapping my face, and only Armin's constant supply of skin-care lotions kept me from aging before my time. He couldn't do much for the blisters on my hands and feet.
A routine also developed with Levi and me. Petra had been right about him being antisocial. Levi didn't hang out much with the other guardians, though it was clear they all respected him. And the more I worked with him, the more I respected him too, though I didn't really understand his training methods. They didn't seem very badass. We always started by stretching in the gym, and lately he'd been sending me outside to run, braving the increasingly cold Montana autumn.
Three weeks after my return to the Academy, I walked into the gym before school one day and found him sprawled on a mat, reading a Louis L'Amour book. Someone had brought in a portable CD player, and while that cheered me up at first, the song coming from it did not: "When Doves Cry" by Prince. It was embarrassing to know the title, but one of our former housemates had been obsessed with the '80s.
"Whoa, Levi," I said, tossing my bag on the floor. "I realize this is actually a current hit in Eastern Europe right now, but do you think we could maybe listen to something that wasn't recorded before I was born?"
Only his eyes flicked toward me; the rest of his posture remained the same. "What does it matter to you? I'm the one who's going to be listening to it. You'll be outside running."
I made a face as I set my foot up on one of the bars and stretched my hamstrings. All things considered, Levi had a good-natured tolerance for my snarkiness. So long as I didn't slack in my training, he didn't mind my running commentary.
"Hey," I asked, moving on to the next set of stretches, "what's with all the running, anyway? I mean, I realize the importance of stamina and all that, but shouldn't I be moving on to something with a little hitting? They're still killing me in group practice."
"Maybe you should hit harder," he replied drily.
"I'm serious."
"Hard to tell the difference." He set the book down but didn't move from his sprawl. "My job is to get you ready to defend the prince and fight dark creatures, right?"
"Yup."
"So tell me this: suppose you manage to kidnap him again and take him off to the mall. While you're there, a Strigoi comes at you. What will you do?"
"Depends on what store we're in."
He looked at me.
"Fine. I'll stab him with a silver stake."
Levi sat up now, crossing his long legs for his small build in one fluid motion. I still couldn't figure out how someone so short could be so graceful. "Oh?" He raised his thin, dark eyebrows. "Do you have a silver stake? Do you even know how to use one?"
I dragged my eyes away from his body and scowled. Made with elemental magic, silver stakes were a guardian's deadliest weapon. Stabbing a Strigoi through the heart with one meant instant death. The blades were also lethal to Moroi, so they weren't given out lightly to novices. My classmates had just started learning how to use them. I'd trained with a gun before, but no one would let me near a stake yet. Fortunately, there were two other ways to kill a Strigoi.
"Okay. I'll cut his head off."
"Ignoring the fact that you don't have a weapon to do that, how will you compensate for the fact that he may be a foot taller than you?"
I straightened up from touching my toes, annoyed. "Fine, then I'll set him on fire."
"Again, with what?"
"All right, I give up. You've already got the answer. You're just messing with me. I'm at the mall and I see a Strigoi. What do I do?"
He looked at me and didn't blink. "You run."
I repressed the urge to throw something at him. When I finished my stretches, he told me he'd run with me. That was a first. Maybe running would give me some insight into his killer reputation.
We set out into the chilly October evening. Being back on a vampiric schedule still felt weird to me. With school about to start in an hour, I expected the sun to be coming up, not down. But it was sinking on the western horizon, lighting up the snow-capped mountains with an orange glow. It didn't really warm things up, and I soon felt the cold pierce my lungs as my need for oxygen deepened. We didn't speak. He changed pace to match mine, so we stayed together.
Something about that bothered me; I suddenly very much wanted his approval. So I picked up my own pace, working my lungs and muscles harder. Twelve laps around the track made three miles; we had nine more to go.
When we reached the third-to-last loop, a couple of other novices passed by, preparing to go to the group practice I'd soon be at as well. Seeing me, Petra cheered. "Good form, Eren!"
I smiled and waved back.
"You're slowing down," Levi snapped, jerking my gaze from the others. The harshness in his voice startled me. "Is this why your times aren't getting any faster? You're easily distracted?"
Embarrassed, I increased my speed once more, despite the fact that my body started screaming obscenities at me. We finished the twelve laps, and when he checked, he found we'd shaved two minutes off my best time.
"Not bad, huh?" I crowed when we headed back inside for cool-down stretches. "Looks like I could get as far as the Limited before the Strigoi got me at the mall. Not sure how Armin would do."
"If he was with you, he'd be okay."
I looked up in surprise. It was the first real compliment he'd paid me since I started training with him. His grey eyes watched me, both approving and amused.
And that's when it happened.
I felt like someone had shot me. Sharp and biting, terror exploded in my body and in my head. Small razors of pain. My vision blurred, and for a moment, I wasn't standing there. I was running down a flight of stairs, scared and desperate, needing to get out of there, needing to find…me.
My vision cleared, leaving me back on the track and out of Armin's head. Without a word to Levi, I tore off, running as fast as I could toward the Moroi dorm. It didn't matter that I'd just put my legs through a mini-marathon. They ran hard and fast, like they were shiny and new. Distantly, I was aware of Levi catching up to me, asking me what was wrong. But I couldn't answer him. I had one task and one alone: get to the dorm.
Its looming, ivy-covered form was just coming into view when Armin met up with us, his face streaked with tears. I came to a jarring stop, my lungs ready to burst.
"What's wrong? What happened?" I demanded, clutching his arms, forcing him to look into my eyes.
But he couldn't answer. He just flung his arms around me, sobbing into my chest. I held him there, stroking his sleek, silky hair while I told him it was going to be all right—whatever 'it' was. And honestly, I didn't care what it was just then. He was here, and he was safe, which was all that mattered. Levi hovered over us, alert and ready for any threat, his body coiled to attack. I felt safe with him beside us.
A half hour later, we were crammed inside Armin's dorm room with three other guardians, Ms. Annie, and the hall matron. This was the first time I'd seen Armin's room. Legout had indeed managed to get him as a roommate, and the two sides of the room were a study in contrasts. Legout's looked lived in, with pictures on the wall and a frilly bedspread that wasn't dorm-issue. Armin had as few possessions as I did, making him half noticeably bare. He did have one picture taped to the wall, a picture taken from last Halloween, when we'd dressed up like the standard vampires, included with fake fangs and red and black clothing. Karma, really, because the Strigoi are basically the standard vampires. Seeing that picture and remembering how things used to be made a dull pain form in my chest.
With all the excitement, no one seemed to remember that I wasn't supposed to be in there. Outside in the hall, other Moroi crowded together, trying to figure out what was going on. Legout pushed her way through them, wondering what the commotion in her room was. When she discovered it, she came to a screeching halt.
Shock and disgust showed on almost everyone's faces as we stared at Armin's bed. There was a fox on the pillow. Its coat was reddish-orange, tinged in white. It looked so soft and cuddly that it could have been a pet, perhaps a cat, something you'd hold in your arms and snuggle with.
Aside from the fact that its throat had been slit.
The inside of the throat looked pink and jellylike. Blood stained that soft coat and had run down onto the yellow bedspread, forming a dark pool that spread across the fabric. The fox's eyes stared upward, glazed, over with a sort of shocked look about them, like the fox couldn't believe this was happening.
Nausea built up in my stomach, but I forced myself to keep looking. I couldn't afford to be squeamish. I'd be killing Strigoi someday. If I couldn't handle a fox, I'd never survive major kills.
What had happened to the fox was sick and twisted, obviously done by someone too fucked up for words. Armin stared at it, his face death-pale, and took a few steps toward it, hand involuntarily reaching out. This gross act hit him hard, I knew, digging at his love of animals. He loved them, they loved him. While on our own, he'd often begged me for a pet, but I'd always refused and reminded him we couldn't take care of one when we might have to flee at a moment's notice. Plus, they hated me. So he'd contented himself with helping and patching up strays he found and making friends with other people's pets, like Oscar the cat.
He couldn't patch this fox up, though. There was no coming back for it, but I saw in his face he wanted to help it, like he helped everything. I took his hand and steered her away, suddenly recalling a conversation from two years ago.
"What is that? Is it a crow?"
"Too big. It's a raven."
"Is it dead?"
"Yeah. Definitely dead. Don't touch it."
He hadn't listened to me back then. I hoped he would now.
"It was still alive when I got back," Armin whispered to me, clutching my arm. "Barely. Oh God, it was twitching. It must have suffered so much."
I felt bile rise in my throat now. Under no circumstances would I throw up. "Did you—?"
"No. I wanted to… I started to…"
"Then forget about it," I said sharply. "It's stupid. Somebody's stupid joke. They'll clean it up. Probably even give you a new room if you want."
He turned to me, eyes almost wild. "Eren… do you remember… that one time…"
"Stop it," I said. "Forget about it. This isn't the same thing."
"What if someone saw? What if someone knows…?"
I tightened my grip on his arm, digging my nails in to get his attention. He flinched. "No. It's not the same. It has nothing to do with that. Do you hear me?" I could feel both Legout's and Levi's eyes on us. "It's going to be okay. Everything's going to be okay."
Not looking like he believed me at all, Armin nodded.
"Get this cleaned up," Annie snapped to the matron. "And find out if anyone saw anything."
Someone finally realized I was there and ordered Levi to take me away, no matter how much I begged them to let me stay with Armin. He walked me back to the novices' dorm. He didn't speak until we were almost there. "You know something. Something about what happened. Is this what you meant when you told Headmistress Annie that Armin was in danger?"
"I don't know anything. It's just some sick joke."
"Do you have any idea who'd do it? Or why?"
I considered this. Before we'd left, it could have been any number of people. That was the way it was when you were popular. People loved you, people hated you. But now? Armin had faded off to a certain extent. The only person who really and truly despised him was Marco, but Marco seemed to fight him battles with words, not actions. And even if he did decide to do something more aggressive, why do this? He didn't seem like the type. There were a million other ways to get back at a person. "No," I told him. "No clue."
"Eren, if you know something, tell me. We're on the same side. We both want to protect him. This is serious."
I spun around, taking my anger over the fox out on him. "Yeah, it is serious. It's all serious. And you have me doing laps every day when I should be learning to fight and defend him! If you want to help him, then teach me something! Teach me how to fight. I already know how to run away."
I didn't realize until that moment how badly I did want to learn, how I wanted to prove myself to him, to Armin, and to everyone else. The fox incident had made me feel powerless, and I didn't like that. I wanted to do something, anything.
Levi watched my outburst calmly, with no change in his expression; as usual. When I finished, he simply beckoned me forward like I hadn't said anything. "Come on. You're late for practice."
